1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to food service equipment. More specifically, the present invention relates to equipment used to distribute ice into drink receptacles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Athletic trainers are healthcare providers tasked with the prevention, diagnosis and intervention of emergency, acute and chronic medical conditions associated with the participation in sports. In organized sports, for example, the athletic trainer is primarily responsible for implementing proper injury prevention measures to ensure each of the participants is properly prepared to engage in the activity. The trainer may also be responsible for ensuring proper hydration prior to and throughout the activity to avoid cramping or more serious injury, such as dehydration or heat stroke.
Unfortunately, a significant amount of time during organized sports requires the trainer to perform tasks other than focusing on the welfare of the participants and the prevention of injury, especially in athletic programs with limited budgets, where the athletic trainer may also be the equipment manager, facilities manager, groundskeeper, and general jack-of-all-trades. For example, instead of focusing attention on the participants, the trainer may be filling water bottles for an entire football team to make sure the players are properly hydrated.
In fact, due to the sheer number of participants in organized sports, ensuring proper hydration becomes a very time-consuming activity. A typical football team, for example, may have over one-hundred players and another twenty staff. During pre-season training in the heat of the day, or during the course of a three hour football game, each of those players needs to have hydration readily available.
“Readily available” hydration, however, can require during a particular activity filling hundreds of drink receptacles with ice and liquid (such as water or a sports drink) and transporting the filled drink receptacles to different positions around the field or facilities. Typically, the drink receptacles are generally-cylindrical plastic bottles that may be carried in a multiple-receptacle holder with an upwardly extending handle. Because of the shape and relatively small opening of the receptacles, filling them with ice is particularly time-consuming and inefficient. If the athletic trainer is also filing the receptacles with ice, this is not optimal use of the trainer's time, which should instead be focused on the athletic participants in order to observe any potential warning signs of ailment or injury, such as heat stroke or cramping.